That Dream we share
by lightserenade
Summary: [Based on the Manga; chapter 12-14] The Team decides to stay one more week in the human world for Taiki's sake. Meanwhile Shoutmon and Taiki struggle with trying to make the other happy. Maybe they just share the same ideal of happiness without knowing?


After Taiki, Shoutmon and their friends defeated the Bagra army in the fight that escalated in the human world, it was planned that everyone would return to the digital world to continue to fight. But in the end it was decided that they would stay for another week.

"Guys we really should stay here for a while." was Shoutmon's suggestion and everyone was left speechless for a while. "But Shoutmon you don't like it here." was Dorulumon's matter of fact reply and of course he was right. Shoutmon missed something in this world. He missed the fire inside peoples' souls that burns with powerful energy if you follow your dreams with determination. "But Taiki wants to see his family and we didn't even let him, kyu" Cutemon continued for Shoutmon and suddenly everyone understood. This was Taiki's home. The home of the boy who they had so much to thank for.

That is how Shoutmon and his friend's supported the idea of staying one more week at the human world, disguised as humans. Today was day two out of seven. Shoutmon just opened his eyes as he felt the sunlight against his cheek. He woke up inside of Taiki's room and it filled his heart with uneasiness and excitement at the same time. Everything in this room was different and as he looked around he could see his partner still sound asleep on his bed. But he couldn't stop himself from feeling like he was in the wrong place. Did Taiki feel like this in their world, too?

It didn't took Taiki long to wake up himself and he almost gasped as he saw Shoutmon in his human form on the mattress on the floor besides his bed. He quickly tried to silence his fast heartbeat as he reminded himself that this was indeed his best friend. As Taiki began to study Shoutmon's new appearance once more he suddenly began to laugh.

"Shoutmon! Look at your hair!" he said between his laughter, earning a raised eyebrow from Shoutmon. Nevertheless the Digimon turned around just to see his messy hair in the mirror. Before he could say anything besides his scrowl, Taiki already handed him a brush. Then the boy left to go to the bathroom, leaving Shoutmon to struggle alone with his hair.

"Ouch!" the Digimon yelled for the fifth time as the brush got stuck in his hair once more and he had to use force to pull it out. But this time it wouldn't get out. "What?!" Shoutmon tried it again with more force, only causing himself more pain without any results. Just then Taiki returned, seeing his Digimon partner struggle with the brush in his hair. The boy laughed in amusement but still offered his help of course. "Should I get it out?" he asked only to gett a huff from Shoutmon.

"Fine" Taiki said as he turned around to leave the room again, already counting down from 3 to 1 until- "Taiki get this thing out!" the Digimon yelled in despair, his pride obviously hurt. "Alright, alright." the boy said with a smile and quickly got the brush out of that messy hair it was stuck in. Not wanting Shoutmon to end up like this again, which he probably would, Taiki decided to brush his friend's red hair. After he was finished Taiki smiled proudly. "Finished!" he said and put the brush aside as Shoutmon took another glance at the mirror. "Well now I look like a king should!" the Digimon said in his usual loud voice.

After the rest of the morning passed by without any troubles, everyone went into the city. The other Digimon, who sadly had to stay inside the Xros loader for the night were now walking around together. Of course everyone, like Shoutmon were tranformed into humans as a disguise. As they continued to walk through the city it happened quite often that one of them would suddenly stop at a shop, stuck in awe at all those different kind of things one could buy.

Suddenly it was Shoutmon's turn to stop. "A music shop?" he read out the sign on the window, feeling how the rest of the gang now was surrounding him. "That seems perfect for Shoutmon, kyu!" Cutemon cheered and Taiki immediatly saw his chance of finding something that Shoutmon would really enjoy in his world besides the food. "Let's go in then!"

One hour later they left the store again after they heard all kind of different songs in there. But even the music was different in this world. Whenever Shoutmon would listen to a song, he never could hear the human's soul in this song. Maybe humans don't put their heart into the songs? But what's the point of music if they don't?

The next thing they stopped at was a restaurant. Taiki probably was going to spend all his money he saved over the last year on food for his friends. He didn't mind though. Everytime the Digimon were trying something new, they were amazed all over again how good it tasted. And after Shoutmon finally finished his third bowl of ramen they were ready to pay and leave again.

It was always surprising how fast time went by. After they visited a toy store and spent almost two hours there because they had to find Cutemon, who ran off inside that big building to play, they ended up in the arcade. There Taiki spent almost 3 hours with all of the Digimon, playing every kind of game that looked interesting enough to try.

As Taiki literally spend all of his money they left the arcade, noticing the sun slowly setting. "It's already this late?" said Shoutmon as he saw the golden sky above them. "That means we really should go back now." Dorulumon added and so it was called a day.

Finally at home, the gang disappeared into the Xros loader again, saying their good nights before Taiki could throw himself on the bed. He had lots of fun today with everyone even though he was really exhausted. But he wondered if the Digimon had fun, too. Especially Shoutmon. He knew they decided to stay because of him and that they wished to be back home, fighting against the enemy.

"Shoutmon?" Taiki spoke up and the Digimon raised his head. "Yeah?" - "Did you have fun?" the boy asked his partner a bit too nervously and waited for an answer. The Digimon meanwhile was surprised by the question but it was easy to answer. "Of course! I got to beat Dorulumon in those race games quite a lot didn't I?" Shoutmon said with a big smile and proud of himself but noticed that Taiki didn't share his spirit right now.

Taiki pretended a smile though but of course didn't fool his friend. "Good night Shoutmon" said his partner and turned around to sleep. Shoutmon decided he would talk about this with Taiki tomorrow and after such an exhausting day he fell asleep just in a few minutes.

Taiki on the other hand was lying in his bed wide awake. He couldn't sleep, no matter how hard he tried. As Taiki turned around in his bed, what must have been for the millionth time by now, his eyes rested on Shoutmon's sleeping form. He still found it hard to believe that his friends really could turn into humans. He was happy that he could show them his own world without wondering how to hide the Digimon.

Shoutmon, who's body reacted to the feeling of being watched, opened his eyes, only to see Taiki being the one staring at him. "What? Go to sleep already." the Digimon huffed tiredly. "Shoutmon did you enjoy today?" the boy asked despite Shoutmon telling him to go to sleep.

The Digimon grinned lightly at that, knowing his partner too well. "We enjoy it here. We always wanted to learn more about you and your world. So you better use those remaining four days!" Shoutmon said as a try to cheer his partner up and he even earned a small smile from Taiki. "Thank you Shoutmon." was the last thing Taiki said before he finally could fall asleep.

Shoutmon sighed in relief as his partner finally was asleep. But now it was his turn to be awake. He got up after a few minutes and walked to the open window, sitting on the frame as he stared up to the clear night sky. The Digimon kept wondering about his sleeping friend as he eyed the shining stars. Akari told them how hyper and energic Taiki once was as a child. But his behaviour changed as he blamed himself for a friend's critical injury. That's when the boy started to stop having his own dreams.

Of course Shoutmon wouldn't accept this and knocked some sense into his friend. Now he could feel a fire burning in Taiki but it was still calm. It actually made him wonder. What is Taiki's dream? Could Taiki still help him with his dream without giving up his own? Did Taiki actually want to stay in his world? These thoughts kept bothering the as a human disguised Digimon until he fell asleep on the window frame as the warm night air blew through his hair.

The next day Taiki woke up, missing his friend on the mattress. As he looked to the window with half opened eyes he could see Shoutmon's blurry silhouette sitting on the window frame, sleeping peacefully. The boy kept wondering how his friend ended up there but he pushed the though aside for now. Taiki got up as he rubbed the last of sleep out of his eyes and decided to wake his friend up.

It was now 11 am and they decided to have a big breakfast in the city. Everyone was sitting together on a large table in a well known cafè, checking the menus with excitement. Everyone besides Shoutmon. He was sitting on his chair, staring at the menu in front of him with absent eyes. It didn't take long for his friends to notice that their usual loud friend didn't already yell through the whole cafè what he wanted to order.

"What's wrong Shoutmon, kyu?" asked the little girl looking like Cutemon with a worried expression. This caught everyones attention except for Taiki who already had noticed himself. But the question was ignored by Shoutmon with a small annoyed huff. Then he just began to order himself 2 plates of pancakes, which only made his friends grow more suspicious.

After everyone had finished their breakfast they went outside to discuss what to do today. While everyone was arguing with enthusiasm, Shoutmon stayed slightly at the side, watching the clouds in the bright blue sky. His thoughts from last night kept bothering him no matter how much he tried to deny it. Taiki eyed his friend who seemed to not be himself today and wondered why. Maybe he really just wanted to go back to the digital world?

As the other Digimon were still trying to decide on one thing to do, Taiki left the group to join his partner. "Shoutmon? What's wrong with you?" the boy asked straight forward. Shoutmon turned around and his face only showed annoyance. "Nothings wrong with me." was the stubborn reply from the Digimon and it made Taiki boild with anger to get the cold shoulder as he was just trying to help his friend. "You have been like this all day!" Taiki tried again but his partner just 'hmpf'ed and turned around to walk away, not wanting to deal with this.

"Hey were are you going?!" yelled Taiki after him, half angry half worried that Shoutmon would get lost on his own in the city. Their friends suddenly turned their attention towards Taiki who just screamed loud enough for the whole city to hear it and questions like 'what happened?', 'where did Shoutmon go?' and 'will he be okey?' filled their minds as Taiki only stared blankly at the direction his partner just diappeared at.

Shoutmon indeed found himself lost in the city. He had no clue where he was or where the others could be by now. Everything around him looked the same and it left him without any kind of orientation. He really shouldn't have run off like that. But he couldn't face Taiki at this moment. He was too scared that his partner would want to stay in the human world, leaving him and his friends to fight alone against the Bagra army. And if Taiki would leave them he at least wanted to avoid it as long as he could. But spending the last time he might have with Taiki wasn't possible like this either.

The lost Digimon finally managed to end up at a park where he decided to stay for a while. It seemed better than running around without knowing where he is anyway. So he sat down one the bench, closing his eyes as he felt the sun shining on his skin and got lost on his thoughts again.

And as it seems he didn't end up too far away from his friends. Because it barely took Taiki 30 minutes to find him. "Shoutmon!" he heard his name called and so opened his eyes just to see his partner running towards him at full speed. "Taiki wha-" he mumbled but was already crushed as Taiki threw himself onto him. "Found you!" the boy yelled, completly out of breath as both of them ended up on the ground.

After Taiki was sure that Shoutmon wouldn't run away again, he had to promise it like a hundred of times, both of them got up to sit on the bench. "So what's up with you?" Taiki asked without hesitation as they both seemed to have calmed down and the Digimon knew he should talk about it. But he was so bad with words. "Say Taiki. What is your own dream?" Shoutmon asked instead of directly answering his friend's question.

"My Dream?" Taiki repeated in a questioning voice. "Yeah. Don't tell me you forgot again already." the Digimon said teasingly even though he wasn't exactly in the mood for jokes. "My Dream is..." the boy began slowly and Shoutmon waited impatiantly as he could almost feel his chest hurting out of fear what might be Taiki's answer.

"My Dream is to go on many adventures with you and all of my friends." Taiki finally answered. "All this time...All this time I had a lot of fun!" he explained further, leaving the poor Digimon who had expected the worst in complete shock. "S-so.." Shoutmon stuttered out but was at the loss of words. "Let's beat the Bagra army together!" Taiki said as he suddenly stood up, facing his partner with a bright smile on his face.

Yeah. That's it. The fire in a persons soul if one is fighting for their dream that Shoutmon missed in this world. "Yeah" Shoutmon agreed simply with a grin on his lips.

With that both dashed off to find their friends. Because it was already decided without any words needed, that they would return to the digital world today and fight together as a team like they always have. Together as Team Xros Heart!


End file.
